COULD BE A SIGN: Ways of Communicating

Everything and everybody is trying to tell us something. And so are we all, no matter what we’re doing. We communicate with imagery and built form, in gesture and physicality, in language both oral and textual. And it is all accumulating and being revised constantly.

What are we trying to say? And is our message received as it was intended? Ambiguity is in the nature of communication and can add layers of humour, empathy or misunderstanding. As we move away from the human voice by texting and tweeting, it may be faster but it’s not necessarily clearer.

With this issue we look at some of the media we use and the implications of how we communicate.

by Miria Ioannou
We’ve been hearing a lot about the Oxford comma recently. How can that be when we’re consumed with effective hashtags and struggling to contain our communication efforts to 140 characters?

by Elizabeth Cinello
Scientists at Duke University and MIT have found the area of the brain that is sensitive to speech – the superior temporal sulcus (STS).The polyglots of St. Clair West have a very active STS. They even mix up languages to create a hybrid communication.